" i shall imagine life
is not worth dying,if
(and when)roses complain
their beauties are in vain
but though mankind persuades
itself that every weed's
a rose,roses(you feel
certain)will only smile"
ee.cummings

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

"We Drink Chocolate Together"

I was recently switched on to a rather delicious little café
called Chocola.j which serves the thickest drinking chocolate and handmade decadent
delicacies. I managed to pull co-owner Claudia Lucas aside from her busy- and
enviable- labours to chat about Chocola.j some more.

“We focus on pastry
and chocolate, cakes made to order and selection of truffles. We like to keep
an emphasis on artisanal and handmade products, so we make our own French and
Belgium chocolate and some of it gets infused with different flavours, we use
it the café and sell it as bars. My business partner Nelia Smee did a lot of
research while we were planning the business and she found out that Chocolaj is
the Mayan for “We drink chocolate together”

Be sure to get there on Friday for this!

A selection of cupcakes including Soft Serve Cupcake,

Chocolate Astros Cupcake and a Creme Brulee Cupcake

Details like the suspended rope shelving and parquet finished walls

make the environment modern but warm.

Where did the dream of a chocolate and pastry only
delicatessen come from?

“We kind of grew up
with the idea. Nelia and I are both Portuguese, so we grew up with food and in
food loving families. After I studied Interior Design I realised it wasn’t really
for me, then I studied pastry making. I also went overseas for a while and when
I came back I started baking personally made, artisanal items from home. When
Nelia came back from overseas and saw what I was doing we decided to work
together and the rest is history as they say! When we started up we sold from
Neighbourgoods and Market on Main and it meant we could open up shop last year September.”

I love details like the old recipe books on the wall, filled with the nostalgia of childhood.

How did you come up sleek yet comforting décor?

“Nelia and I had a few ideas but really it was our friend Bronwyn Mary Cane who combined all of them and put the place together" View more of Browyn's work at www.bronmarycane.co.za